Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing is integrated into everyday objects and activities. According to this computing model, people using ubiquitous computing may engage a number of computational devices and systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily be aware that they are doing so. Various models of ubiquitous computing share common attributes directed to small, inexpensive, robust, networked input and processing devices, distributed at various scales throughout everyday life and generally turned to distinctly common-place ends. For example, a home ubiquitous computing environment may interconnect lighting and environmental controls with personal biometric monitors woven into clothing so that illumination and heating conditions in a room may be modulated, continuously and imperceptibly. Another example may include performing an Internet search for temperature or similar environmental parameters at a remote location, and the search retrieving results from a number of sensors through a scalable networked device system.
Ubiquitous computing presents challenges in systems design and engineering, in systems modeling, and in user interface design. Contemporary human-computer interaction models, whether command-line, menu-driven, or graphical user interface based, may be inadequate or not suitable to the ubiquitous model. A ubiquitous computing network may include very large numbers of devices. Location, functionality, network connection, and status of such devices may be highly variable. Thus, it is a challenging task to continuously map these devices so that users can access the devices remotely and utilize their functionality.